Kenyan Police, Poll Monitors Deployed Ahead of Party Nominations

A barbershop burns in Nairobi's Mathare slum in post-election violence, December 31, 2007.

Kenya will deploy 66,000 Administration Police, General Service Unit and regular officers to 33,000 polling centres to supervise party nominations on Thursday (January 17th), Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo announced, according to Kenya's The Standard.

The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) on Monday also sent 80 poll monitors to areas prone political violence ahead of party nominations, Kenya's Daily Nation reported.

There have been claims that some candidates were already awarded direct nominations, an attempt that could result potential chaos from candidates who want a free and fair party nomination.

"We want the monitors to look at all aspects of the campaigns and report to us for possible mechanisms of preventing violence like the one that occurred after the 2007 elections," said John Emeripus, KNCHR's head of communication.

Emeripus said the monitors would remain in the areas until after the general election on March 4th.

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